


Bonding

by finwritesthings



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Holt Sibling Bonding, Nonbinary Pidge | Katie Holt, One Shot, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot, Sibling Bonding, VLD au, Voltron Legendary Defend AU, alternative universe, binding, the holt siblings are good and pure and no one and nothing can take this away from me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-13
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-17 17:40:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13664007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/finwritesthings/pseuds/finwritesthings
Summary: Holiday gatherings are hard on everyone, but Pidge is especially struggling this year.





	Bonding

The room is filled with the gentle hum of music and the chatter of relatives, the smell of holiday baking drifts through the air. Pidge shifts in their seats, tugging at their shirt hem as they watch people mill about. Their eyes dart around the room quickly before slowly inching their hand up to the side of their ribs, adjusting their binder through the thick sweater. Pidge has spent the whole day helping set up for tonight’s party, and the realization that they’ve been binding for almost 11 hours is starting to set in. Their ribcage feels tight.

“Hey there Pidgeon.” Pidge jumps in their seat as their head shoots up to see the person standing behind, hand on Pidge’s shoulder.

“Matt.” Pidge’s voice sounds strained even to them.

Matt’s mouth dips downwards as he stares at Pidge carefully, “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.” Pidge’s response is too quick, too high.

Matt pulls a chair up next to Pidge and flops down, watching Pidge carefully, “C’mon, I know something’s up. You haven’t moved from this chair since family started showing up, you haven’t spoken a word to anyone, you haven’t even tried to go pet anyone’s dogs yet. Which is so not like you.”

Pidge digs their fingers into the material of their pants, shoulders hunched. “I just-” Pidge’s words are cut off abruptly as a second cousin or something of the like walks by. They lower their voice before continuing once more, “I’m afraid of what people will say.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean-” Pidge takes a deep breath, pinching their eyes shut. “I mean, I used to be Katie. But now I’m Pidge, who uses they/them pronouns because I’m “confused about my gender” because no one seems to understand the concept of there being more than two genders despite that on a chromosomal level there are more than two combinations of X and Y chromosomes and I’ve been binding for almost 11 hours but I can’t just go and take it off for a bit because mum will get upset that I’m being anti-social and if I explain it to her she’ll just tell me to go without it and-”

“Hey.” Matt reaches out to Pidge’s shoulder once more, “If you need to take your binder off for a bit then go. I’ll tell mum you’re taking a dump or something.” Matt’s smile is goofy and teasing, but it eases some of the anxiety in Pidge’s belly. “And then, when you’ve had a little time, we can make the rounds. Together. And I’ll make sure everyone uses the right name and pronouns for you. And then we can hang out with the dogs once we’ve had our socializing quota for the day. And if anyone says anything at dinner I’ll just kick them under the table and pretend like I was trying to kick you. How’s that sound?”

Pidge lets out a breath they hadn’t realized they were holding. They open their mouth to respond but realize they can’t speak around the lump in their throat. They lean over to Matt and wrap their arms around his shoulders, squeezing. Matt laughs into their hair and hugs Pidge back, patting them only somewhat patronizingly on the head.

Pidge laughs into his shoulder as they speak, “You’re an asshole.”

“Yes but I’m the best asshole.” They both laugh as Pidge jabs Matt in the side, none too gently.

Perhaps, this party won’t be too bad.

**Author's Note:**

> I did this as a sprint with some friends, our theme was bonding - hence the name. It was a lot of fun and despite this being so short I really wanted to post it. It was pretty out of my comfort zone to write fluff so all things considered I think this turned out decently.
> 
> Please let me know what you think!


End file.
